11th November 2021

A date with much resonance, and we took our own minutes of silence this morning. The level of concentration was deep, and we were largely silent already, but the quality of the silence was different  for that brief time.
The good news is that it has been decided that numbers are such that if you want to come weekly to draw or paint still life, it will be possible to do so, starting next week.  You will still have to bring your own subject matter with you.

Diana left early, but has already sent an updated photo of the still life she was working on, having decided that 'This morning’s effort lacked just about everything but placing objects on it has reinspired me so I will have another go...' She is already pleased with the dark patch added at top left.  The other two are, respectively, 'detail of Autumn landscape by son Charlie ,wish I could paint like this,' and, 'photo  taken  Nov 10th 2018  Thornham woods.'

Carolyn has still not been able to join us at the Bowls Club, but has still sent in a sample of what she has been doing during the week, as could you!  As we go along, you will see this is the beginning of a bit of a theme.

This rather arresting image comes from Noreen - two Scottish Black Grouse.

June attended the Bank on Wednesday as well as the Bowls Club, so here are her two contributions.

Avril was busy as usual, and has two drawings from this morning - 'Landscape of Manchester, out of my comfort zone' and 'Work in progress, believe it or not I ran out of time.'

Frances is in Brittany and has been very busy - 'Four sketches, the first of a view in our garden here. The other three sketches done on walks and the last another small box canvas.'

Sally L worked on a Nerine flower that she had brought from home.

From Jackie. 
'Following the Hashim Akib workshop, this is my second attempt using his technique with acrylics but I am finding this really difficult.  Some of The acrylic paints are so powerful that mixing colours was frustrating.  For the last half an hour Sally kindly set up a pineapple for us to paint so I used the acrylics like watercolour and felt much happier!

Another Nerine accompanied by a cyclamen from Lesley. In acrylic, painted with the idea to copy and digitally print them onto fabric for a textile project she's involved in.

Freda painted these leaves and berries this morning.  The landscape is a 'green scene' from her imagination.

Sally P was working on pictures 2,3,4 and 5 of her ongoing practice from the (Hashim Akib) workshop. One of which she completed today at the bowls club. Each had a time limit of 45mins maximum.

Ian worked on this landscape this morning, but didn't get it finished.  It is from a photo taken while on holiday.  His good news is that he sold two paintings at an exhibition on Saturday, both Norfolk scenes!

Harriet has sent in a picture that she painted before going away, which is not quite finished, but which she intends to work on further.

So finally, apologies for failing to photo the morning assembly hard at work, but below you can see how the tables were set up, as we all prepared to leave.  My drawing this morning follows some I made during lockdown, of favourite shoes.  These are my baby shoes (not sure how they got quite so worn!) - It's not finished, so although it should be 'Two Blue Shoes', at the moment it's only one.
The second apology is for taking so long to post this.  Most of the pictures got to me in plenty of time, but I had to go to the supermarket in the middle!
Don't forget, it will be Noreen in the chair next week for the Blog, so send your pictures to her in good time.